The best way to start in Cybersecurity
There are many ways to get a job on the Cybersecurity industry. Everybody starts from a different point, and from that point, people create their unique path to get the skills and experience to get the job they want. But nowadays there are a lot of content, courses, certifications and degrees related to Cybersecurity, that it seems very unclear where to start and what path to follow (Specially for complete beginners). So in this blog I want to share with you a platform that I've been using since I was studying and I'm still using now that I got a Security Analyst job, this platform is TryHackMe and recently, they released the new Security Engineer path.
About TryHackMe
TryHackMe is an online platform for learning cybersecurity, it's objective is not only to give you the theory but also the hands-on experience that usually is very difficult to get while learning cybersecurity. The platform is structured by rooms that are made to learn and practice a specific skill, each room has tasks, that is, the content of that specific room and questions about the task. TryHackMe also has paths; paths are made to build the knowledge required to get a job on a certain area in Cybersecurity or to build the fundamental knowledge to start on the Cybersecurity industry; so far there are 12 paths:
- Complete beginner
- Pre Security
- Introduction to Cyber Security
- Web fundamentals
- Cyber Defense
- SOC Level 1
- Jr Penetration Tester
- CompTIA Pentest+
- Offensive Pentesting
- Attacking and Defending AWS
- Red Teaming
- Security Engineer (The new one)
Each path is made of modules and each module has its rooms. The modules and rooms are arranged in order from the fundamental knowledge of that specific area, all the way to more advanced knowledge, creating the perfect not boring but challenging path.
The new Security Engineer Path
Security Engineers are very critical to organizations nowadays, they are meant to design secure software, networks and systems, and understand the risks that can affect the company.
As I mentioned, TryHackMe has just released the new Security Engineer path, which is a path to give you an introduction to security engineering. In this path, you'll see content like:
- Security principles
- Cryptography
- Vulnerability management
- Secure network architecture
- Network device hardening
- Software security
- OWASP
- And more
I recommend give it a try if you want to pursuit a career in Cybersecurity as a Security Engineer. In the US, the average salary of a Security Engineer is $126,836 per year, so it is not only a interesting and entertaining job, but also very well paid.
My experience with TryHackMe
I have been using TryHackMe for almost a year, and paying for the premium subscription is one of the best inversions I have made with my money; the subscription is only $90.00 per year, and the content is extremely good ranging from beginner content to advanced; you also get a browser-based Kali Linux machine, which is very useful if your personal computer doesn't have enough resources to run a VM.
So far I have completed the Jr Penetration Tester path and I'm halfway of the Offensive Pentesting path and to be honest, I never thought that learning pentesting could be that easy, you can take the learning process you want, but in my opinions the best one is to first read the task and try to understand the theory, and after that, complete the questions trying to not re-read the task again, if you are really stuck then you can read it again. This has really helped me to build my hands-on skills and my memory, but everybody learns different, there are people that prefer to follow the process to answer the questions while reading the task, is up to you to build you ideal learning process.
As I mentioned at the beginning right now I'm working as a Security Analyst, and even though I got a job, I'm still using TryHackMe almost everyday but one thing that I wanted to mention is that, when I was doing my interview for this role, the interviewer said that it liked that I completed the Jr Pentester path as it is easy to understand the different actions an attacker can make when monitoring the network, so it means that TryHackMe is well known around employers and adding the paths you've completed to your resume will give you a significant advantage while applying for jobs.
If you want to learn more about Cybersecurity I recommend looking at my other posts. Thank you and have a great day.